Agriculture

Back in July of 2016, a team of researchers affiliated with the University of California, Davis, wrote in the journal Phytopathology that the three-cornered alfalfa leaf hopper, Spissistilus festinus, transmits the virus that causes grapevine red blotch virus.

UC Davis scientists, in collaboration with UC Berkeley and Oregon State University researchers, are leading a $3 million federal grant targeting the grapevine red blotch virus and its vectors. The disease threatens the $162 billion grape industry and is described as an "urgent problem.

Congratulations to community ecologist Rachel Vannette of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, recipient of two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants involving flower microbes.

As I have mentioned in my previous blogs, I have a certain affinity for cover crops. Mostly it is because I see enormous potential to increase the soil health and climate resiliency in Ventura County agriculture by incorporating cover crops.

Drones... If you're thinking of apiculture, you might be thinking of drones (male bees). But if you're thinking of agriculture--more specifically sustainable agriculture practices in the 21st century--you ought to be thinking of the importance of unmanned aerial robots.

When we first started using livestock guardian dogs nearly 15 years ago, I often joked that we our sheep operation was "predator-friendly" because our dogs were not.

Sustainable agricultural practices in the 21st century should increasingly depend on drones and other innovative technologies, says an international team of scientists, including UC Davis entomologist Elvira de Lange, in a newly published article in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

They met the mantids, walking sticks, beetle-mimicking roaches, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, tarantulas, silkworm moths, a butterfly, a dozen caterpillars and a chrysalis. It was a great day to get acquainted with insects and arachnids and learn how to raise them.

UC Agricultural Issues Center has released new studies estimating the cost and returns of establishing an almond orchard and producing almonds for three growing regions of California.

Community ecologist Rachel Vannette of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology seeks to unlock the mysteries of flower microbes: how do plants protect against them, and can bees benefit from them?